Improvising the Score

Improvising the Score Synopsis

2023 Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) Jazz Awards for Books of the Year-Honorable Mention RecipientOn December 4, 1957, Miles Davisrevolutionized film soundtrack production, improvising the score for LouisMalle's Ascenseurpourl'echafaud. A cinematic harbinger of the French New Wave,Ascenseurchallenged mainstream filmmaking conventions, emphasizing experimentationand creative collaboration.It was in thisenvironmentduring the late 1950s to 1960s, a brief "e;golden age"e; for jazz in film, that many independent filmmakersvalued improvisational techniques,featuring soundtracks from such seminal figures as John Lewis, Thelonious Monk,and Duke Ellington. But what of jazz in film today? Improvising the Score: Rethinking Modern Film Music through Jazz provides an original,vividinvestigation ofinnovativecollaborations between renowned contemporary jazz artists and prominent independent filmmakers. The book explores howtheseintegrative jazz-film productions challenge us to rethink the possibilities ofcinematic music production.In-depth case studiesinclude collaborations between Terence Blanchard and Spike Lee (Malcolm X,When the Levees Broke), Dick Hyman and Woody Allen (Hannah and Her Sisters), Antonio Sanchez and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman), and MarkIshamand Alan Rudolph (Afterglow). The first book of its kind, this study examines jazz artists' work in film from a sociological perspective, offering rich, behind-the-scenes analyses of their unique collaborative relationships with filmmakers. It investigates how jazz artists negotiate their own "e;creative labor,"e; examining the tensions between improvisation and the conventionally highly regulated structures, hierarchies, and expectations of filmmaking. Grounded in personal interviews and detailed film production analysis,Improvising the Scoreillustrates the dynamic possibilities of integrative artistic collaborations between jazz, film, and other contemporary media, exemplifying itsripeness forshaping and invigorating twenty-first-century arts, media, and culture.